Michael Malone - Weebly

Cliffs of Dover, than Luke Packer had yet to earn. But
he had bought experiences and pleasures without
undoing a life's protective habit of keeping himself safely
withdrawn, enclosed in what Ramona called his
prissiness.
Withdrawn, he had bought a box seat at the human
comedy, had sat through the opera of foibles, intrigues,
and dramatic pastimes. He had spied, from an excellent
place in the house, on life and lives. He had observed
interesting people do their interesting things. In the end,
Smalter had only this regard for money—that it was
better to have enough than not to. Like so much else in
life (success, sleep, height), it gained its value in its
absence. In the end he found he preferred work as a
vehicle of vacation. He took pride not in the work he
did, but in the fact that he did it diligently. He preferred
the old New England values. And he preferred to live at
home, where no one looked at him because they had
seen him so long.
But, since his return to Dingley Falls when
Dingleyans assumed his luck had run out, the money
had kept on earning money, and the earnings had